Autumn 2021 saw the premiere of four new works; ‘The Imagined Forest’ for orchestra, ‘The Butterfly and the Stone’ for flute and piano duo, ‘The Safe-Kept Memory’ for concert band and ‘To Breathe Now’ for orchestra.
On September 5th, ‘The Imagined Forest’ was premiered at The BBC Proms. The new work for orchestra was co-commissioned with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for performance under their new chief conductor, Domingo Hindoyan to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Royal Albert Hall. More information about the premiere on the previous blog post here.
RLPO at The BBC Proms.
Meera Maharaj and Dominic Degavino Duo
‘The Butterfly and the Stone’ for flute and piano was premiered on October 1st by flautist, Meera Maharaj and pianist, Dominic Degavino, at the Swaledale Festival. ‘The Butterfly and the Stone' is inspired by words from the British poet, Elisabeth Sennitt Clough’s poem of the same name. The piece utilises elements of the poem to act as an unspoken vocalisation of the words, and depicts the imagery within the text by contrasting delicate passages with more rhythmic and dramatic moments. The duo have since performed the work on their tour of Scotland in Inverurie and and Kelso. More information on the piece here.
Only a few days later as part of the Wirral Arts Festival 2021, Heswall Concert Band premiered ‘The Safe-Kept Memory’ on October 3rd at Heswall Hall. The work was commissioned by the concert band in celebration of their 25th Anniversary. The piece is titled after and influenced by the poem ‘The Coin’ by the American lyric poet, Sara Teasdale (1884-1933), which also informs the melodic contour of the work. The poem inspired the work after reading the words of Les Stevenson, a founding member and president of the band, who enthuses that one of the greatest benefits of being a musician, is friendship. This friendship, especially within the community of a long-standing band, is perhaps to be celebrated as the safe-kept memory of a lovely thing. More information about the premiere and the band is here and the work is also available here.
Heswall Concert Band
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra premiere of ‘To Breathe Now’ by Grace-Evangeline Mason
Lastly, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra gave the premiere of ‘To Breathe Now’ on November 20th, which is the first performance of this orchestral arrangement of the third movement of ‘Upon Weightless Wings’ for large chamber ensemble. This piece is inspired by the installation ‘To Breathe – A Mirror Woman’ (2006) by multidisciplinary artist Kimsooja, in which she transformed a palace into a glorious display of reflected rainbows. The concert took place at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, and more information about the piece is available here.
